雅思阅读真题（Part 3）
劳伦斯·约翰斯顿与希德科特花园
本篇也叫：希德科特花园、希德科特、Hidcote花园、西德科特花园、希德科特庄园、劳伦斯·约翰斯顿
Part 3 · 考频：超高频 · 最近考试：2023.4.1/2022.1.15/2021.4.29/2018.9.15
本篇为雅思阅读真题（Part 3）《Lawrence Johnston and Hidcote Garden》，共 14 题，2023.4.1/2022.1.15/2021.4.29/2018.9.15雅思考试真题回忆，页面提供完整原文、题目、答案与解析，并支持在线机考模式免费练习。本页同时提供 Markdown 版本 供 AI 助手与搜索引擎直接读取。
文章讲述美国人劳伦斯·约翰斯顿1907年来到英国科茨沃尔德，在母亲资助下于1908年起设计建造希德科特花园，1930年代达到巅峰，可与西辛赫斯特花园齐名。后由园艺师南希·林赛、格雷厄姆·托马斯接手，托马斯为吸引游客增植花卉，使今日游客所见多为托马斯的布置而非约翰斯顿原貌。
Robin Lane Fox writes about the American genius behind a remarkable garden in the English Cotswolds
A
Today, the National Trust in the UK administers hundreds of public gardens, while sixty-odd years ago there was only one, Hidcote Manor near the English village of Chipping Campden. In 1949 Hidcote attracted a mere 600 visitors and took all of £30 during its first public season. Nowadays, Hidcote is famous worldwide as a masterpiece of design and planting, attracting 150,000 visitors and raising nearly £1 million from entrance tickets annually.
B
Hidcote Garden was the creation of an American in Britain, the shy Major Lawrence Johnston, who came to live on the site in 1907 with his widowed mother, Gertrude Winthrop. In some respects Winthrop feared her son's talents for expensive landscape gardening and never allowed him full access to the family's funds. Nonetheless, with her inspiration and guidance Johnston started his design in 1908 and brought it to a peak in the early 1930s when he was in his 60s. He may rightly be ranked at this time beside Harold Nicolson and Vita Sackville-West, creators of Sissinghurst, his garden's only surviving equal.
C
In the last years of his life, Johnston placed faith in his head gardener Nancy Lindsay. Lindsay was undoubtedly a skilled plantswoman but she had many other talents as well, including one for taking offence, and he was ill-suited to dealing with her impassioned views. When the National Trust subsequently acquired the garden from Johnston, none of his crucial garden diaries could be found, and some speculated that Lindsay had burned them to hurt her employer.
D
Whatever their actual fate, Trust gardener Graham Thomas was tasked with reviving Hidcote, and he had to manage without these crucial documents. Thomas knew that for the gardens to be a commercial success he needed to extend those areas that were of most interest to the general public, so he introduced new plants and a Mediterranean Bank where Johnston had had nothing of the sort, while retaining the existing superb structure of avenues and evergreen rooms. As a result, since 1949, the visiting public has innocently been admiring Thomas's flower plantings, not Johnston's own.
E
When the important designer Russell Page had visited Hidcote in 1934 he had hailed the half-hardy plants in the summer house as one of the highlights. But Thomas later got rid of them and pulled the house down, fearing such relatively colourless exhibits would not capture the public's imagination.
F
Then, in 2002, Johnston's old diaries and notebooks resurfaced. The present head gardener had started to give lectures about Hidcote's lost early designs, during which he appealed for memories from his audience. A few months later an envelope arrived. There was no letter inside, only Johnston's personal diaries from the 1920s and 30s. The sender may be unknown but the importance of these documents to Hidcote is certain, for they contain invaluable notes regarding the selection of plants and, even better still, detailed sketches by Johnston himself showing how the different parts of the garden are related and how those relationships evolve over the seasons.
G
These documents are a rarity in other ways too, for they never dwell on the issues so typically addressed in diaries—relationships, loves and longings. These are far more interesting, for they represent a classic social history of an English country house during the inter-war years. On page after page Johnston describes the layout of the plants and gardens, interspersed, for example, with that day's guests. The famous novelist Edith Wharton is recorded as coming for lunch, beside a recipe for poison to kill garden weeds. It is this mix of glamour and the everyday that makes the diaries of such peculiar fascination. At their heart, though, these are useful documents containing, for example, lengthy lists of those who might one day be of service around the estate, including local stone masons and glaziers, or repairers of broken china from as far away as France.
H
The discovery of the diaries has offered Hidcote a new direction for the years ahead. Inspired by them, an anonymous American has given the gardens £1.6 million. This is a remarkable chance, which the Trust has gladly seized upon to allow for crucial repair work on paths and the famous pool, together with the reconstruction of the old summer house. However, the real implications of the discoveries made from the diaries are more problematic, for now the Trust must take its collection of plants up one notch. We now possess information about the very plants that most appealed to Johnston in the garden's golden years. Today, these may not be easy to source, nor so appealing to contemporary tastes.
I
'But isn't it all so long ago?' a non-gardening academic recently asked me. On the contrary, Hidcote is still with us, a living legacy. It includes the greatest central vista in British gardening, the design I regard as the greatest in British art in the past century. It was the work of an American genius building an un-American garden of his own. I do not believe the fashionable guess nowadays that Johnston was informed by books on contemporary design by Britain's Thomas Mawson, an altogether less innovative mind. This is not least because there is so much in the garden to remind us how Johnston had travelled widely in Europe, which Mawson had not. It is Johnston's own origins, the events of his life, and his individual design flair that contribute to making Hidcote so unique.
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答案：Its popularity has increased over the years.
原文定位：In 1949 Hidcote attracted a mere 600 visitors and took all of £30 during its first public season. Nowadays, Hidcote is famous worldwide as a masterpiece of design and planting, attracting 150,000 visitors and raising nearly £1 million from entrance tickets annually
答案：illustrate Hidcote's significance.
原文定位：He may rightly be ranked at this time beside Harold Nicolson and Vita Sackville-West, creators of Sissinghurst, his garden's only surviving equal
答案：She may have had a disagreement with Johnston.
原文定位：Lindsay was undoubtedly a skilled plantswoman but she had many other talents as well, including one for taking offence, and he was ill-suited to dealing with her impassioned views;some speculated that Lindsay had burned them to hurt her employer
答案：The public does not realise his contribution to the garden.
原文定位：As a result, since 1949, the visiting public has innocently been admiring Thomas's flower plantings, not Johnston's own
同义替换：「does not realise his contribution」↔「has innocently been admiring」，「revived the garden」↔「tasked with reviving Hidcote」
答案：evaluate Thomas's work.
原文定位：When the important designer Russell Page had visited Hidcote in 1934 he had hailed the half-hardy plants in the summer house as one of the highlights. But Thomas later got rid of them and pulled the house down, fearing such relatively colourless exhibits would not capture the public's imagination
答案：original plans
原文定位：The present head gardener had started to give lectures about Hidcote's lost early designs, during which he appealed for memories from his audience. A few months later an envelope arrived. There was no letter inside, only Johnston's personal diaries from the 1920s and 30s
同义替换：「talks」↔「give lectures」，「lost early designs」↔「original plans」
答案：drawings
原文定位：detailed sketches by Johnston himself showing how the different parts of the garden are related and how those relationships evolve over the seasons
同义替换：「revealing how the garden changed in the course of the year」↔「evolve over the seasons」，「sketches」↔「drawings」
答案：private life
原文定位：These documents are a rarity in other ways too, for they never dwell on the issues so typically addressed in diaries—relationships, loves and longings
同义替换：「learn little of」↔「never dwell on」，「private life」↔「relationships, loves and longings」
答案：visitors
原文定位：interspersed, for example, with that day's guests. The famous novelist Edith Wharton is recorded as coming for lunch
同义替换：「well known」↔「famous novelist」，「guests」↔「visitors」
答案：craftsmen
原文定位：lengthy lists of those who might one day be of service around the estate, including local stone masons and glaziers, or repairers of broken china from as far away as France
同义替换：「foreign country」↔「as far away as France」，「craftsmen」↔「masons and glaziers, or repairers」
答案：TRUE
原文定位：It includes the greatest central vista in British gardening, the design I regard as the greatest in British art in the past century
同义替换：「Gardening may be considered a form of art」↔「British art」
答案：NOT GIVEN
原文定位：The discovery of the diaries has offered Hidcote a new direction for the years ahead;Today, these may not be easy to source, nor so appealing to contemporary tastes
答案：FALSE
原文定位：I do not believe the fashionable guess nowadays that Johnston was informed by books on contemporary design by Britain's Thomas Mawson, an altogether less innovative mind
答案：TRUE
原文定位：It is Johnston's own origins, the events of his life, and his individual design flair that contribute to making Hidcote so unique
同义替换：「reflects aspects of Johnston's life experience」↔「origins, the events of his life」